Talking 'shit': Lessons on Entertainment Education from an urban sanitation drama
Summary:
Faecal sludge management (FSM) has traditionally been seen as an infrastructure issue with its demand-side concerns unexplored. Inadequate FSM disproportionately impacts low income, high density urban settlements in India but has received relatively little policy focus. BBC Media Action surfaced demand side concerns associated with FSM, in a 26-episode TV drama, Navrangi Re! (9R!) aired on a private free-to-air channel, to increase knowledge, shift attitudes and encourage conversations around faecal waste. The Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC) and Oxford Policy Management (OPM) employed a quasi-experimental, panel based approach for evaluation using difference-in-difference analysis as part of a broader mixed methods evaluation. The intervention had a positive impact on interpersonal communication for safe containment, collection and disposal of faecal waste, salience of social disapproval if engaged in insanitary practices and better understanding of containment infrastructure. There was little or no change in attitudes or intent around building septic tanks according to specifications, as respondents continued to prefer bigger and cheaper septic tanks despite the possibility of contamination. Additionally, 9R! had lower than expected exposure, in part due to regulatory changes. The study raises questions around conceptualization and evaluation of E-E interventions in fragmented and fast evolving media markets.
Background/Objectives:
Sanitation behaviours particularly open defecation has been championed by the 'Clean India Mission'. However 'Faecal Sludge Management' (FSM) value chain needed to minimize environmental contamination remains an inadequately understood problem. BBC-MA identified this gap and developed a multi-media intervention (9R!) centered around a 26-episode TV drama, broadcast on a private free-to-air channel, to increase awareness, risk perception, interpersonal communication and intent for proper containment, collection and transportation of faecal sludge (FS). We conducted an evaluation to determine impact on intent creation towards (1) building/maintaining septic tanks, (2) regular desludging and 3) safe disposal of FS.
Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:
A mixed methods, panel study, that included a quantitative quasi-experimental approach, using difference-in-difference and production function specifications was employed to compare outcomes between those exposed and unexposed. A large listing exercise of 75,790 households was undertaken to find households who were likely to be exposed to the show or form a comparable control group. 2,959 individuals meeting the study criteria (watched the channel in question, had a septic tank/insanitary toilet, 5 years of education, aged 25-40 years) were recruited from 9 cities with low sewage coverage spread across 3 Hindi speaking states. Quantitative and qualitative investigation tools were deployed to measure shifts in intent towards FSM. Introduction of new TV regulations, 4 weeks into broadcast, reduced channel viewership, resulting in an endline sample of 447 exposed and 2136 unexposed individuals. Concurrent monitoring with a smaller sample was also employed to determine narrative engagement.
Results/Lessons Learned:
At low exposure (individual viewership of 3+ episodes) septic tank owners reported increased IPC with family/peers on (1) regular desludging (+7%), (2) indiscriminate disposal (+11%); and among insanitary toilet owners, need for a septic tank (+29%). At high exposure (7/10+ episodes), there was an increase in (1) risk perception from untreated FS on health (+20%) (2) intent to desludge every 1-3 years (+17.5%) (3) salience of social disapproval on inadequate faecal waste containment. Across exposure levels, knowledge around containment of HH faecal waste, moved in a positive direction. However, even with high exposure (1) respondents continued to prefer bigger and cheaper septic tanks despite the possibility of contamination (2) no change was recorded in intent to move from manual to mechanical desludging (3) mixed impact was seen on risk perception towards effects of untreated FS on water and soil contamination.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
FSM is considered to be an infrastructure issue, this study highlights the demand side concerns that need to become a part of the discourse. Overall, the show was effective in shifting select knowledge, attitudes and intent indicators amongst those exposed. EE theories predicate impact on exposure and engagement. In this study however, exposure to the show was limited at 17%. Furthermore, BARC data showed 'Average-Time-Spent' across episodes was 4-10 minutes. These insights present opportunities not only for EE conceptualization from a format and platform perspective but also raise questions on approaches to evaluation. The study shows increased IPC with family/peers...
Abstract submitted by:
Purnima Mehrotra - Ashoka
Sandhya Iyer - Ashoka
Tom Newton-Lewis - Oxford Policy Management (OPM)
Rishika Das Roy - Oxford Policy Management (OPM)
Faecal sludge management (FSM) has traditionally been seen as an infrastructure issue with its demand-side concerns unexplored. Inadequate FSM disproportionately impacts low income, high density urban settlements in India but has received relatively little policy focus. BBC Media Action surfaced demand side concerns associated with FSM, in a 26-episode TV drama, Navrangi Re! (9R!) aired on a private free-to-air channel, to increase knowledge, shift attitudes and encourage conversations around faecal waste. The Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC) and Oxford Policy Management (OPM) employed a quasi-experimental, panel based approach for evaluation using difference-in-difference analysis as part of a broader mixed methods evaluation. The intervention had a positive impact on interpersonal communication for safe containment, collection and disposal of faecal waste, salience of social disapproval if engaged in insanitary practices and better understanding of containment infrastructure. There was little or no change in attitudes or intent around building septic tanks according to specifications, as respondents continued to prefer bigger and cheaper septic tanks despite the possibility of contamination. Additionally, 9R! had lower than expected exposure, in part due to regulatory changes. The study raises questions around conceptualization and evaluation of E-E interventions in fragmented and fast evolving media markets.
Background/Objectives:
Sanitation behaviours particularly open defecation has been championed by the 'Clean India Mission'. However 'Faecal Sludge Management' (FSM) value chain needed to minimize environmental contamination remains an inadequately understood problem. BBC-MA identified this gap and developed a multi-media intervention (9R!) centered around a 26-episode TV drama, broadcast on a private free-to-air channel, to increase awareness, risk perception, interpersonal communication and intent for proper containment, collection and transportation of faecal sludge (FS). We conducted an evaluation to determine impact on intent creation towards (1) building/maintaining septic tanks, (2) regular desludging and 3) safe disposal of FS.
Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:
A mixed methods, panel study, that included a quantitative quasi-experimental approach, using difference-in-difference and production function specifications was employed to compare outcomes between those exposed and unexposed. A large listing exercise of 75,790 households was undertaken to find households who were likely to be exposed to the show or form a comparable control group. 2,959 individuals meeting the study criteria (watched the channel in question, had a septic tank/insanitary toilet, 5 years of education, aged 25-40 years) were recruited from 9 cities with low sewage coverage spread across 3 Hindi speaking states. Quantitative and qualitative investigation tools were deployed to measure shifts in intent towards FSM. Introduction of new TV regulations, 4 weeks into broadcast, reduced channel viewership, resulting in an endline sample of 447 exposed and 2136 unexposed individuals. Concurrent monitoring with a smaller sample was also employed to determine narrative engagement.
Results/Lessons Learned:
At low exposure (individual viewership of 3+ episodes) septic tank owners reported increased IPC with family/peers on (1) regular desludging (+7%), (2) indiscriminate disposal (+11%); and among insanitary toilet owners, need for a septic tank (+29%). At high exposure (7/10+ episodes), there was an increase in (1) risk perception from untreated FS on health (+20%) (2) intent to desludge every 1-3 years (+17.5%) (3) salience of social disapproval on inadequate faecal waste containment. Across exposure levels, knowledge around containment of HH faecal waste, moved in a positive direction. However, even with high exposure (1) respondents continued to prefer bigger and cheaper septic tanks despite the possibility of contamination (2) no change was recorded in intent to move from manual to mechanical desludging (3) mixed impact was seen on risk perception towards effects of untreated FS on water and soil contamination.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
FSM is considered to be an infrastructure issue, this study highlights the demand side concerns that need to become a part of the discourse. Overall, the show was effective in shifting select knowledge, attitudes and intent indicators amongst those exposed. EE theories predicate impact on exposure and engagement. In this study however, exposure to the show was limited at 17%. Furthermore, BARC data showed 'Average-Time-Spent' across episodes was 4-10 minutes. These insights present opportunities not only for EE conceptualization from a format and platform perspective but also raise questions on approaches to evaluation. The study shows increased IPC with family/peers...
Abstract submitted by:
Purnima Mehrotra - Ashoka
Sandhya Iyer - Ashoka
Tom Newton-Lewis - Oxford Policy Management (OPM)
Rishika Das Roy - Oxford Policy Management (OPM)
Source
Approved abstract for the postponed 2020 SBCC Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. Provided by the International Steering Committee for the Summit. Image credit: NETTV4U